4.7 Article

Molecular photoacoustic imaging of breast cancer using an actively targeted conjugated polymer

Journal

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NANOMEDICINE
Volume 10, Issue -, Pages 387-397

Publisher

DOVE MEDICAL PRESS LTD
DOI: 10.2147/IJN.S73558

Keywords

photoacoustic tomography; conjugated polymers; molecular imaging; breast cancer

Funding

  1. Singapore Bioimaging Consortium
  2. Institute of Materials Research Engineering, Agency for Science, Technology, and Research, Singapore
  3. Joint Council Office, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore [1231BEG042]

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Conjugated polymers (CPs) are upcoming optical contrast agents in view of their unique optical properties and versatile synthetic chemistry. Biofunctionalization of these polymer-based nanoparticles enables molecular imaging of biological processes. In this work, we propose the concept of using a biofunctionalized CP for noninvasive photoacoustic (PA) molecular imaging of breast cancer. In particular, after verifying the PA activity of a CP nanoparticle (CP dots) in phantoms and the targeting efficacy of a folate-functionalized version of the same (folate-CP dots) in vitro, we systemically administered the probe into a folate receptor-positive (FR+ve) MCF-7 breast cancer xenograft model to demonstrate the possible application of folate-CP dots for imaging FR+ve breast cancers in comparison to CP dots with no folate moieties. We observed a strong PA signal at the tumor site of folate-CP dots-administered mice as early as 1 hour after administration as a result of the active targeting of the folate-CP dots to the FR+ve tumor cells but a weak PA signal at the tumor site of CP-dots-administered mice as a result of the passive accumulation of the probe by enhanced permeability and retention effect. We also observed that folate-CP dots produced similar to 4-fold enhancement in the PA signal in the tumor, when compared to CP dots. These observations demonstrate the great potential of this active-targeting CP to be used as a contrast agent for molecular PA diagnostic imaging in various biomedical applications.

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